2015 Sorte O Soro

The 2014 was a hard act to follow, but the 2015 Sorte O Soro managed to keep its poise. This single vineyard Godello, previously bottled in 2009, 2010 and 2014, was produced with the fruit from vines planted in 1978 on a terraced slope on fine sandy soils rich in granite, schist and quartz. It's farmed organically and following the moon cycles for operations like pruning or harvesting. The clean must fermented in new 500-liter French oak barrels where it matured in contact with the fine lees for seven months. This is always a very tasty white with a salty feeling to it, with marked minerality and a vertical character, straight, focused and long. This is 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.25 and 6.8 grams of acidity (measured in tartaric acid). It is remarkably fresh and elegant for a warm and ripe year like 2015, and it's almost impossible to believe that it matured in new barrels, because there is no trace of oak to be found. It's a little more concentrated and powerful than the 2014, which I also sampled (thanks Coravin!). 2,600 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2016.

Single vineyard. Bottled 2016 and will be released in May. Currently smells mostly of very classy oak. Creamy coconut, cedar and all those spicy oak qualities, and underneath that layer is amazing fruit intensity and salty mouth-watering persistence. A baby but already fabulous. (JH)